Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/295857 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16834
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We use novel data on nearly 6,000 children and adolescents aged 6 to 16 that combine incentivized measures of social, time, and risk preferences with rich information on child behavior and family environment to study whether children's economic preferences predict their behavior. Results from standard regression specifications demonstrate the predictive power of children's preferences for their prosociality, educational achievement, risky behaviors, emotional health, and behavioral problems. In a second step, we add information on a family's socio-economic status, family structure, religion, parental preferences and IQ, and parenting style to capture household environment. As a result, the predictive power of preferences for behavior attenuates. We discuss implications of our findings for research on the formation of children's preferences and behavior.
Subjects: 
social preferences
time preferences
risk preferences
experiments with children
origins of preferences
human capital
behavior
JEL: 
C91
D01
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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